3.5. Disabled Persons

UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons (1975): “Any person unable to ensure by himself or herself, wholly or partly the necessities of a normal individual and or social life as a result of a deficiency either congenital or not in his/her physical or mental abilities” could be described as disabled.

Facts about Disabled Persons

♤ As per census 2011 (2016 updated), in India, the percentage of disabled population is about

2.21 per cent.

♤ About one-third of the disabled population have disability since their birth.

♤ Mental illness is considered as a prominent form of disability.

♤ Five out of ten leading causes of disability and premature death worldwide are due to psychiatric conditions.

While there has been tremendous progress in the area of disability rights, people with disabilities still face a number of barriers put in place by society, not by their “disability”. Disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be unemployed, more likely to face discrimination in the workplace. These barriers are social, not personal, and cannot be “overcome” through sheer force of will.

Persons with disabilities face several forms of discrimination, such as:

♤ They have reduced access to education, employment and other socio-economic opportunities.

♤ They are faced with stigma and discrimination from the society where they live.

♤ They may find it hard to socialize with members of the society which can lead to depression as well as self-pity.

♤ Disabled people are often considered weak, worthless and in some cases subhuman by their societies.